This week the Grand County Council appointed Dale “Pete” Peterson to the Grand County Board of Adjustment and Brian Parkin to the Moab Area Travel Council Advisory Board. Parkin was the applicant recommended by the Travel Council and received a unanimous vote.

Peterson was not the first choice recommended by the board of adjustment. The vote for him was 5-1, with council members Pat Holyoak voting against and Joette Langianese absent.

The motion to appoint Peterson was made by councilman Bob Greenberg, who said, “I’ve known Pete for 25-30 years in his barbershop on Main Street. He’s a great listener who is conversant with the issues in the county. Fair minded, he has not taken a public position that I’m aware of, as the proposed nominee has, on an issue that has currently taken up a lot of the BOA’s time.”

Current BOA members unanimously recommended Sena Hauer for the appointment. Peterson was recommended as the second alternate to the board.

The BOA hears and decides appeals of final administrative land use decisions made by the county council, the Grand County Planning and Zoning Commission, or commission staff.

In their deliberations after they interviewed eight applicants on May 5 BOA members recognized the qualities attributed to Peterson by Greenberg, but they were more impressed with Hauer’s experience as a news writer and editor who had experience covering planning and zoning issues.

Greenberg cited an editorial published in the Jan. 31, 2002 issue of The Times-Independent, when Hauer was its editor. In that editorial The Times chastised the county council for not readily approving what is now called the Cloudrock development on Johnson’s Up On Top mesa. That development is a major issue recently before the board.

The 2002 Times editorial also took the county to task for not supporting a study of a bypass road around Moab, and for not supporting a study to rebuild the La Sal Loop Road. Road construction and the large development were needed for economic development during a time of economic downturn, The Times stated.

Along with its recommendation of Hauer to be appointed to the board, BOA members also recommended James Hofmann and Peterson to be appointed as alternates to fill in when a board member is absent. But on Tuesday night, county officials said that although state law allows alternates, the recently adopted county land use code does not.

After learning from board chair Kelly Thornton that all the applicants agreed to serve as alternates if they were appointed, council chairman Gene Ciarus asked Thornton to contact Hauer and ask if she will accept that position, Ciarus also directed the planning staff to come up with an amendment to the code to allow BOA alternates as soon as possible.

There was no controversy with the appointment of Brian Parkin to the travel council board. The county council’s quick unanimous vote suggested that members agreed with Greenberg, who said he was very excited to see the council expand to include the arts community. He called arts “the future of tourism” in Grand County.

Parkin founded the Moab Art Works Gallery late in 2006 and has a long involvement in photography and commercial filming.